SJC Commissioners ask for Tesla to Relocate to St. Johns County

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — Commissioners from St. Johns County voted this morning to officially ask Elon Musk and the Tesla Company to move to St. Johns County.

Earlier this month, Elon Musk was tweeting about how the stay-at home restrictions in Alameda County, California were "facist" and robbed people from their freedom of going back to work. Since then, several cities and states have reached out to Tesla saying they are more than welcome to relocate the car-making plant. That now includes St. Johns County.

"Tesla, Inc., is hereby respectfully and enthusiastically invited to consider St. Johns County, Florida, as a potential destination in the relocation of its headquarters or any future programs," the resolution states.

The resolution also states several facts about St. Johns County, listing why it would be a good place to relocate the headquarters.

“St. Johns County, while we have experienced a devastating virus, we are still open for business and we have got to employ our residents so they can put food on the table,” Commissioner Jimmy Johns said.

This vote was a followup to a discussion by the commissioners on May 19.

Johns spoke to WOKV this afternoon about the process moving forward. He said they don’t have a timeline or a specific location in mind because they want to leave as many options on the table as possible.

He said there are a lot of reasons why Tesla would be a good fit for the county, especially considering Musk has other businesses operating in the state of Florida.

Johns said from the county’s perspective, it would be good to bring a major employer to the area outside of tourism.

“Nothing wrong with tourism, but we need to have a counter balance so that when one business entity is affected by the economy another one is not so much affected,” Johns said.

It would also help with the amount of people living in St. Johns County and working in another county, Johns said. He said by bringing in Tesla, it would cut down on the amount of people commuting elsewhere every day.

“It sells itself,” Johns said about St. Johns County. “The people are genuinely happy that live here and work here.”